Building With The Locals

Traditional Construction

These guys are making do with what they have: mud and rocks. They can't afford cement, as it would take 5 days by porter to bring it up.

Stone Master

This guy seemed to be the closest thing they had to a foreman. As the oldest of the bunch, I take it they deferred to his experience.

Laying on the "Mud-tar"

Like the other times that I start doing work with locals, these guys thought I was nuts. But they accepted me quickly, showing me how to chip rocks (relatively) safely without eye protection, stack blocks, and mix mud.

Here I am throwing another load of mud-mortar on the wall. Seems my photographer friend didn't know about fingers in front of the lens.

Another Sucessful Graduate

After a few hours of building, it was time to teach rock juggling. This guy picked it up solid in under 10 minutes.

High Altitude Spike

At the end of the day I got invited to play volleyball with the village. Here one of the locals goes for the spike. Apparently, they don't dive for balls here, and were rather shocked when I did.